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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24581677">Twist of Fate</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruce_Waynes_C_Plus_Parenting/pseuds/Bruce_Waynes_C_Plus_Parenting'>Bruce_Waynes_C_Plus_Parenting</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Titans (Comics)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, No Underage Sex, Pseudo-Incest, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-07</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 05:21:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,030</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24581677</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bruce_Waynes_C_Plus_Parenting/pseuds/Bruce_Waynes_C_Plus_Parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Dick Grayson has known the identity of his soulmate since he was a teenager, but to protect him Dick kept it to himself. Then one night after years of bottling up his feelings he slips and allows himself to get caught up in the moment and lets himself have the one thing he wants more than he wants to breath. For a few glorious moments he got everything he ever wanted, then reality set in and he was forced to once again deny his feelings. What he didn't know though was that that one moment changes everything, and not just for the reasons you would think.<br/>The next day a photo of Batman and Nightwing locked in a passionate embrace is front page news.<br/>Dick is forced to make a choice;<br/>Batman's reputation<br/>Or his secret?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Dick Grayson/Bruce Wayne</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>133</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I have a secret. Now as a vigilante secrets are nothing new, secret identitys, secret skills, even secret friends, but I have one secret

 I've managed to keep entirely to myself and while the others may be difficult to maintain, this secret kills me inside.<br/>
I was fifteen when I saw it. I'd been living with Bruce for six years and operating as Robin for four of them. It was after a mission, we 

were in the bat cave and catwoman had done a number on the top half of the batsuit. It wasn't until he pealed off the shredded remains 

of the right shoulder of his suit though that I saw it; his soulmark. Naturally being Batman, that was something he kept concealed as 

much as possible, even just as Bruce Wayne, a habit I myself had picked up very quickly after moving in with him, though mine being on 

my left thigh required a lot less effort to hide. Considering all that, seeing his mark was the biggest shock of my young life, because 

even the untimely death of my parents was more  fathomable than Bruce Wayne, the Batman, the man who was supposed to be my 

adoptive father, being my soulmate.<br/>
...<br/>
On that day I made a decision, fate had screwed us over, and I at that point knew Bruce like the back of my hand, and I knew this 

would break him. Bruce was a man of the highest moral caliber, he held himself to almost impossible standards, and being with me, well 

that wasn't even on the scale he measured himself on. No being with me ranked with the lowest of the low in his book (hell its one of 

the few things he and Jason agree on, though they have different ways of dealing with them). So I decided he would never know, I'd 

managed to hide my mark for six years, I could keep hiding it. Luckily my mark resides on my upper thigh, an area Bruce never had any 

reason to see, at age nine I was obviously capable of dressing and bathing myself, and the upper left thigh generally isn't a place one 

aims for in a fight. The few injuries I'd sustained there I'd managed to take care of myself. The hardest part though was hiding my 

feelings, I'd always felt a pull towards him, even before I knew he was my first crush, but then that validation of my feelings while 

knowing it could never go anywhere, well it was heart wrenching. But I fought against it, I tried in every way I was capable of, I pushed 

him away, picked fights, it's what lead to my giving up Robin, hell I dated, had relationships, but somehow it was never enough. I had 

done so well, for over a decade I'd suppressed my feelings, but then there was that one moment, just one... I was weak, and it ruined 

everything. We had just started working together again, a mistake on my part, but I couldn't help it. 

        We'd just taken down the Joker, we were high on adrenaline, endorphins pumping, we were on top of the world and I...I forgot 

myself...It was just one kiss, I couldn't help 

myself, my whole body cried out for it, and for a few glorious moments he reciprocated. I'd pulled him in, my back against the hard wall 

of an ally, but he was harder against me, I'd captured his lips. He was still for a microsecond before he threaded his fingers into my hair, 

pulling me closer, his lips moved against mine, his other hand clutching my thigh and bringing it up against him. For those few precious 

moments, it was perfect. But then his mind caught up with his body and that was it. Neither of us had heard the snap of a camera.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Consequences</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dick faces the unintended consequences of his weak moment.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for the kudos and comments! Comments especially are the best motivation for me:)</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kyle Rainer pulled me aside before I'd even made five steps into the watchtower. After ushering me into an empty supply room he leveled me with a concerned look.</p><p>"So this morning I encountered an...ah..interesting photograph, and yes of course before taking it at all seriously I checked that it was legitimate. So, wanna tell me about you and the Batman, cause not gonna lie, I did not see that one coming."</p><p>My heart stalled in my chest, oh god no. There was no way this could be happening, no way, this, this was...earth shattering, it was catastrophic, it was the worst possible outcome, one I had never thought to consider, my weakest moment, immortalized in a single damning photo for the whole world to see. My mistake out on display, all the time and work I put into hiding my biggest secret and because of one, just one, moment of weakness, everything I had worked so hard to hide would come crumbling down, everyone would know what I’d been hiding, all those years of pain and pining would be for nothing. Except...No, that’s not what it would look like to anyone else. Oh god no, it would be so much worse, not for me, but for Bruce, oh god. To anyone who knew, or at least had some idea of what we were to each other in our civilian identities, it would look like Batman had been engaging in an illicit relationship with his much younger ward for god knows how long. They wouldn’t know that I had initiated the kiss, that it was only a kiss, the first and only kiss, and they certainly wouldn’t know that he was my soulmate. No those who didn’t know him well would speculate about how long this had been going on, they would wonder if he had coerced me, groomed me, if he had trained me for exactly that reason, they would wonder about all the other boys he’d trained over the years, about what Robin’s duties really were. They’d call him a predator, a pervert, they wouldn’t know that Bruce would die before he would lay a hand on an underage child, that he would never touch any of us that way, that it was just one moment and I’d caught him off guard. Then those who did know him, well they would know the specifics of our relationship, they’d know that he was my legal guardian, but despite that they’d give him the benefit of the doubt, they’d ask about Ivy’s pollen, about Clayface’s whereabouts, and every other shapeshifter or form of mind control. They would give him every possible out, but Bruce and his iron conscious wouldn’t take them, no, not just because he’s opposed to outright lying like that to his friends and family (he is...most of the time), no he wouldn’t take the out because he would want to be punished, he would think he deserved it. He would silently reject the easy outs, he’d give no excuse, no justification, he wouldn’t say anything, just close himself off and suffer in silence, taking whatever anyone would throw at him while internally beating himself up at the same time.</p><p>“Hey Nightwing, you in there?” Kyle jerked me out of my thoughts waving a hand in front of my face.</p><p>“Yeah, I uh, I gotta go Kyle.” I stuttered out, moving towards the exit.</p><p>“Really? You’re not gonna tell me anything, not gonna explain why there’s a picture of you with your tongue down the god damned Batman’s throat? Come on man, I thought we were friends.” Kyle calls out to my retreating back. </p><p>I didn’t answer, I couldn’t, I needed to get the hell out of there as soon as possible. As I made my way towards the zeta tubes I was acutely aware of the whispers following my every step.</p><p>“Didn’t he used to be Robin?”</p><p>“I bet Catwoman’s pissed.”</p><p>“I thought Batman was like his dad or something.”</p><p>“Was Starfire like his beard?”</p><p>“How old even is Batman anyway?”</p><p>“I wonder if they get it on in costume...Wait do you think they even can? The Nightwing suit is pretty damn tight, I wonder where the zipper is.”</p><p>“I didn’t even know Batman liked dudes, maybe he made an exception for Nightwing’s spectacular ass.”</p><p>By the time I finally reached the zeta tubes I was about ready to explode, my hands were shaking and it felt about a million degrees in there. I wanted to crawl into the deepest darkest hole I could fine and never come out, as I stepped into the zeta beam I caught Clark’s concerned glance out of the corner of my eye, ugh if I tried that he’d probably just come dig me out.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Dick is content to hide out until the whole mess blows over, but certain family members aren’t having any of that.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I’m on a roll! Two in one day whoop whoop</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After the Watchtower incident I retreated to my least well known safe house to wait out the storm, I sent a cryptic message to Cass </p>
<p>asking her to watch over Bludhaven for me, knowing she would be the only member of the family capable of respecting my privacy. To </p>
<p>that end I disabled my coms, turned off my phone and spent a week wallowing in self pity and shame. I would have gone longer but the </p>
<p>feeble counter measures I took really did nothing to keep certain family members away, actually attempting to hide from them would </p>
<p>have taken a Herculean amount of effort, not to mention more planning than I could do in an afternoon. So I was entirely unsurprised </p>
<p>when I woke up one morning to find Tim sitting at my table drinking my coffee. Actually scratch that, I was surprised that he’d given me </p>
<p>as much time as he had. </p>
<p>“Timothy.” I greeted as I made my way to my kitchen to pour myself a bowl of cereal.</p>
<p>Tim doesn’t waste time with small talk and cuts right to the reason of his visit.</p>
<p>“He’s self destructing, not talking to anyone, not even Alfred, he’s taking worse care of himself than usual, hardly eating, barley </p>
<p>sleeping, taking unnecessary risks on patrol, and worse he’s just passively allowing the Justice League to ostracize him. Clark and Diana </p>
<p>are doing their best but more than a few members are refusing to work with him, it’s gotten so bad he’s pretty much given up on it, he </p>
<p>just lets them treat him like trash and say vile things about him. You’ve gotta fix this Dick, he can’t keep going like this, its eating him </p>
<p>alive and he’s actively allowing it to happen.”</p>
<p>I set my cereal down and turned to face him, somewhat surprised that he doesn’t appear to have an opinion on me and Bruce. Although </p>
<p>prioritizing the larger issue and not getting bogged down by less important personal opinions is very much in character for Tim, ever the </p>
<p>most practical member of the family, still of all people Tim has to be bothered by it.</p>
<p>“So you’re not going to ask why? You don’t want an explanation? Because I’m 100% certain Bruce hasn’t said a word about it.” I </p>
<p>questioned.</p>
<p>Tim let out a dry chuckle, “Dick I’m not stupid, none of us are, you and Bruce have had cosmic levels of unresolved sexual tension the </p>
<p>entire time I’ve known you guys, it was only a matter of time, besides,” he paused to level me with a knowing stare, “I know you’re </p>
<p>soulmates, I’ve known for years, and before you ask, no Bruce doesn’t know, at least not consciously, he may be the world’s greatest </p>
<p>detective, but he has a major blind spot for you. He’s not about to go looking for an answer he doesn’t want to find.”</p>
<p>My jaw dropped as he spoke, I’m pretty sure my eyes were the size of saucers.</p>
<p>He laughed for real at that, “Come on Dick, don’t look so surprised, I figured out who Batman and Robin were at age nine, I’m not </p>
<p>Bruce, but I am an excellent detective. We all have our strengths, you can fold yourself into a pretzel, Cass can basically read minds, </p>
<p>and I solve puzzles.”</p>
<p>He had a point, but still, it was unnerving knowing that he’d just been casually aware of my biggest secret.</p>
<p>“Okay fine, you’re a genius, but your creepy snooping aside, what do you expect me to do about Bruce? I kept it to myself for a reason, </p>
<p>he can’t handle knowing, he’d implode.”</p>
<p>“Dude he’s already imploding, whatever reaction he has to knowing will be better than this mess. Not to mention the havoc he’s allowed </p>
<p>all this to wreak on his reputation, you’ve gotta fix this Dick, you have to come clean and save him from himself.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Dick is Done</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>This is Tim’s fault</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>I went back to the Watchtower when I knew everyone would be there, including Bruce, who I'd had Tim coerce into coming. When he saw me I could feel him tense and I knew his eyes had widened behind the cowl. I felt bad about blindsiding him like this, but it needed to be done and I couldn't trust himnot to disappear off the face of the planet, let alone do this himself if I'd told him in advance.<br/>
Unsurprisingly I didn't need to say anything to gather everyone's attention as all eyes had been ping ponging between Bruce and I from the moment I stepped out of the zeta.</p><p>"Alright, this has gone on long enough, I have a few things I'd like to say, so I would appreciate if you guys would listen."</p><p>"Of course Nightwing." Diana immediately responded even though I could see the confusion hidden beneath her stoic facade.</p><p>I took a deep breath, ignoring the pained expression on Bruce's face.</p><p>"Okay, so first things first, Batman is not a pervert... and he is not my father. The photograph you all saw was the first and only time we were ever romantically involved and was the result of a secret I have been keeping for many,many years." I paused and let all that sink in, not yet daring to look at Bruce again for fear I'd loose my nerve.</p><p>"Because of our partnership and how young I was when we met, among a few other reasons irrelevant to our current discussion, I have kept this to myself, but it seems I no longer have that option.” I took another moment to steel my nerves before dropping the bomb.</p><p>”Batman is my soulmate."</p><p>Before anyone had a chance to react I grabbed Bruce by the arm and hauled him to the zeta tubes while I called out a closing remark over my shoulder.</p><p>"This is the last I'd like to hear about the entire subject, so please keep your gossip out of the watchtower, I'm pretty sure the current Robin doesn't enjoy the comments about my ass."</p><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Short but sweet</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Fallout</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Bruce was silent the whole way back to the cave, and when we got there the only thing he did was demand everyone leave. Cass went without any hassle, Steph wiggled her brows, Damien scoffed and Duke just shook his head. We were lucky that Jason rarely spent any time in the cave those days. After everyone had cleared out I began stripping out of my uniform, which startled Bruce into speech.</p><p>"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded.</p><p>I laughed without humor, "Calm down B, I'm not trying to jump you, this is just the easiest way to show you this." I stepped out of my uniform, stripped down to just my under armor shirt and boxers, then gestured to my upper left thigh.</p><p>"I figured you'd probably want proof, so I'll just cut to the chase."</p><p>Bruce's eyes immediately locked in on my soul mark, an iridescent spiral of black feathers that faded into blue and wrapped around my thigh several times.</p><p>He stared, transfixed, eyeing the mark like it was both the most precious and the most dangerous thing he'd ever seen. He started to reach out, but then appeared to stop himself, jerking his hand back.</p><p>I let out a heavy sigh as I watched the conflicting emotions dance across his beautiful face. There was joy and sorrow, elation and terror, but above all there was guilt, just so much guilt.</p><p>I cautiously reached out and placed my hand on his as I pinned him with my gaze.</p><p>“It’s okay Bruce, it’s okay. You can have this, you can have me, you’re allowed to want want this, you are allowed to want <em>me</em>.”</p><p>He was still and silent for a few more moments, but then ever so slowly, he reached out again, hesitation coloring his every breath and fear tinging his longing eyes, until his fingertips brushed the sensitive skin of my soulmark, brushing across the design reverently for what felt like an eternity before he spoke, tears threatening to break past his iron will.</p><p>“Dick, you are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, you are the light that kept me from falling over the edge, you were my partner, my confidant. You taught me how to live again, how to be more than just the mission, Dick I have loved you since the day we met, though I don’t realize it until you left. I’ve been fighting myself ever since, you deserve more, you deserve better Dick, you may have left that circus, but I never left Crime ally. You deserve better than me, no matter what a mark on your thigh says.”</p><p>I stared at him in shock for a few moments, stunned motionless until he started to move away and my hand reached out to grasp his wrist.</p><p>“Don’t you think I should be the judge of what I deserve Bruce? I’ve loved you since before I knew what love was and I’m not about to let your misplaced self righteous guilt get in the way of that! I’m here Bruce, just please for once in your life let yourself be happy.”</p><p>He was silent long enough that I almost gave up and left but as I turned to leave he grasped my arm and pulled me in. Our lips met with an explosion of sparks behind my eyes. I drew him closer, wrapping as much of myself around him as I could, I was certain he could feel my smile against his lips.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So this is it, I may write an epilogue later but see we shall see😁</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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